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Baked Fish

A whole fish baked with a bread crumb, butter, onion, mustard, and seasoning stuffing, served with parsley and sliced hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Fish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Prepare the dressing by mixing bread crumbs, butter, onion, celery, mustard, salt, and pepper.

  3. Stuff the fish with the dressing, filling it well.

  4. Wrap the fish in a white cloth and sew it up.

Bake

  1. Place the fish in a pan, add enough water to nearly cover it, and add a little salt, pepper, and butter to the water.

  2. Bake for 2 hours, basting frequently.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish on a dish garnished with parsley and decorate with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Mustard + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
The main protein; it turns opaque and flakes as it cooks through.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices, giving the stuffing body and helping it hold together.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the stuffing and fish tender.
Onion
Softens and adds savory aroma and moisture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Baking the stuffed fish for 2 hours with frequent basting. A whole stuffed fish cooks slowly, and its center can lag behind the outside. Basting keeps the surface moist, and the fish should be checked that it is opaque and flakes easily before serving.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, bread, butter, onion, pepper, parsley, egg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, bread, butter, onion, pepper, parsley, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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